Second Sunday of Lent
Matthew 17:1-9
This Sunday’s Readings
First Reading
Genesis 12:1-4a
God promises Abram a great blessing.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 33:4-5,18-20,22
God’s mercy is upon those who trust in God.
Second Reading
2 Timothy 1:8b-10
Through God’s grace we are called to holiness.
Gospel Reading
Matthew 17:1-9
Jesus is transfigured on the mountain in the presence of Peter, James, and John.
Background on the Gospel Reading
For the second Sunday of Lent, we move from Jesus’ retreat to the desert to his Transfiguration. Each year on the first Sunday of Lent, our Gospel tells the story of Jesus’ temptation in the desert. On the second Sunday of Lent each year, we hear the story of Jesus’ Transfiguration.
The story of Jesus’ Transfiguration is told in the three Synoptic Gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke. In each of those Gospels, the Transfiguration follows Jesus’ first prediction of his death and his teaching about the costs of discipleship. Jesus’ Transfiguration is a promise of Jesus’ glory, his Resurrection.
On a mountain in today’s reading, a voice affirms that Jesus is God’s Son in words reminiscent of the voice at Jesus’ baptism. In addition, the appearance of Moses and Elijah on the mountain connects this story with God’s relationship to the people of Israel. Moses and Elijah represent the Law and the Prophets, respectively. Together with Jesus, they represent God’s complete Word.
The Transfiguration occurs in the presence of just three of Jesus’ disciples: Peter, James, and John. In Matthew’s Gospel, those disciples are among the first whom Jesus calls. The three men are identified as an “inner circle” among Jesus’ disciples when Jesus asks them to accompany him to the Garden of Gethsemane just before his arrest.
The ‘transfigured’ Face does not want ‘disfigured’ faces
Romeo Ballan, mccj
The Transfiguration of Jesus is a new step in the journey to discover the identity of Jesus and his mission. Last Sunday, that identity was revealed in the moment of the Temptations. On the second Sunday of Lent there is another habitual appointment: the Transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Tabor (Gospel). The event occurs “six days later “(v. 1), that is, after the encounter at Caesarea Philippi (with the profession of faith of Peter, the promise of his leadership, the first announcement of the passion: Mt 16:13-28). Each of these events adds important features in the composition of the true face of Christ, as we pray in the entrance antiphon: “Seek his face. I do seek your face, O Lord. Do not hide your face from me” (Ps 27:8-9).
One response to this urgent appeal comes from “a high mountain” (v. 1), where Jesus was transfigured in front of three chosen disciples: “His face shone like the sun and his clothes became as white as the light” (v. 2). The light does not come from outside, but comes from within the person of Jesus. In fact, Luke, in a parallel text, points out that “Jesus went up the mountain to pray, and while He was praying, his face was changed” (Lk 9:28-29). It is from the relationship with the Father that Jesus is interiorly transformed: his total identification with the Father shines in his face (see Jn 4:34; 14:11).
Jesus does not seek for himself a moment of self-glorification; Jesus wants his disciples to better discover his identity and his mission. To this end, a manifestation of the Holy Trinity is accomplished on the mountain, through three signs: the voice, the light and the cloud. The voice of the Father proclaims Jesus as his “Son, the beloved. Listen to him” (v. 5); the light comes from the body of the Son Jesus; the cloud is the symbol of the presence of the Spirit. Precisely in that context of glory, which is the anticipation of his Passover, Jesus speaks with Moses and Elijah of “his departure, which he was to accomplish in Jerusalem” (Lk 9:31). Prayer, revelation and contemplation of the Trinity, passion and glorification…: now the disciples are able to understand more about the personality of their Master. And here an invitation to each one of us: that we may find a time -possibly quite long- to contemplate the attractive face of Jesus, until we may say, as Peter did: “Lord, it is wonderful for us to be here” (v. 4).
The Transfiguration occurred “while Jesus was praying: his face was changed” (Lk 9:28-29). True prayer is never escapism. For Jesus, prayer was a moment of strong identification with the Father and His plan of salvation. Prayer has the capacity to transform the life of the Christian; it is the unique basic experience of the mission. Prayer has its most real expression when it flows into the service of others in need. This is the missionary dimension of prayer.
The proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus necessarily implies a strong commitment to the defence and promotion of the most vulnerable people, whose human dignity is often scarred and disfigured by so many forms of violence, exploitation, neglect, hunger, disease, ignorance… Any defacement of human dignity is contrary to the plan of God, the Father of Life! On this vocation to life and to grace rests the dignity of every human person, whose face must not suffer disfigurement for any reason whatsoever. Wherever there is a defaced or disfigured human face, the presence of the Church and the missionaries of the Gospel is imperative and urgent! The attractive face of Jesus in his ‘transfiguration’ does not want some brothers and sisters to have ‘disfigured faces’. That is why missionary work comes close to people who suffer, touching and healing the wounds -both in body and soul- of those who are in pain.
TRANSFIGURATION
Anthony Bloom
There are two icons of Transfiguration that bring us two mutually completing messages. The one, by the hand of Saint Andrew Rublev, and the other one by Theophane the Greek.
The icon of Rublev is all splendour; Christ appears to us in glory; the disciples are taken – as the Gospel tells us – with fear; they prostrate themselves, they loose awareness of where they are and what is happening.
The icon of Theophane is less brilliant, but it conveys us another message: not only of the fact that on the day of Transfiguration Christ appeared to His disciples all shining, all transfixed by the glory of His own Godhead; but it shows us how the rays of this light, the divine light, the very Divinity of God pouring itself out reaches His flesh, reaches His clothes, and beyond that touches all that is this mountain of the Transfiguration. And when a ray of light touches a stone or a rock, or a flower, they begin to shine in reply, as it were, to shine with eternal light; they commune to it but not passively; they receive it at the very heart of their being and become capable of shining themselves with eternal light; not to perfection yet, because perfection will be reached when God shall be all in all, at the end of time, but to the extent to which each creature of God can receive this grace, commune to God, and shine with the splendour of God Himself.
***
There are blessed or tragic moments when we can see a person revealed to us in a light with a depth, with an awesome beauty which we have never suspected before.
It happens when our eyes are open, at a moment of purity of heart; because it is not only God Himself Whom the pure in heart will see; it is also the divine image, the light shining in the darkness of a human soul, of the human life that we can see at moments when our heart becomes still, becomes transparent, becomes pure.
But there are also other moments when we can see a person whom we thought we have always known, in a light that is a revelation. It happens when someone is aglow with joy, with love, with a sense of worship and adoration. It happens also when a person is at the deepest point, the crucifying point of suffering, but when the suffering remains pure, when no hatred, no resentment, no bitterness, no evil is mixed to it, when pure suffering shines out, as it shone invisibly to many from the crucified Christ.
This can help us to understand what the Apostles saw when they were on the Mount of Transfiguration. They saw Christ in glory at a moment when His total surrender to the will of the Father, His final and ultimate acceptance of His own human destiny, became revealed to them. Moses and Elijah, we are told, stood by Him; the one representing the Law and the other one representing the Prophets: both have proclaimed the time when salvation would come, when the Man of suffering will take upon Himself all the burdens of the world, when the Lamb of God slain before all ages would take upon Himself all the tragedy of this world. It was a moment when in His humanity Christ, in humble and triumphant surrender, gave Himself ultimately to the Cross…
The Apostles saw the shining, they saw the divine light streaming through the transparent flesh of Christ, falling on all the things around Him, touching rock and plant, and calling out of them a response of light. They alone did not understand, because in all the created world man alone has sinned and became blind. And yet, they were shown the mystery, and yet, they entered into that cloud which is the divine glory, that filled them with awe, with fear, but at the same time with such exulting joy and wonder!
Moses had entered that cloud and was allowed to speak to God as a friend speaks to a friend; he was allowed to see God passing by him, still without a name, still without a face; and now, they saw the face of God in the Incarnation. They saw His face and they saw His glory shining out of tragedy. What they perceived was the glory, what they perceived was the wonder of being there, in the glory of God, in the presence of Christ revealed to them in glory. They wanted to stay there forever, as we do at moments when something fills us with adoration, with worship, with awe, with unutterable joy, but Christ had told them that the time has come to go down into the valley, to leave the Mount of Transfiguration because this was the beginning of the way of the Cross, and He had to be merged into all that was tragic in human life. He brought them down into the valley to be confronted with the agony of the father whose child could not be cured, with the inability of the disciples to do anything for this child, with the expectation of the people who now could turn to no-one but Him – that is where He brought them.
And we are told that He had chosen these three disciples because together, in their togetherness they held the three great virtues that make us capable of sharing with God the mystery of His incarnation, of His Divinity, of His crucifixion, to face His descent into hell after His death and to receive the news of His resurrection: the faith of Peter, the love of John, the righteousness of James.
There are moments when we also see something which is beyond us, and how much we wish we could stay, stay forever in this blissful condition; and it is not only because we are incapable of it that we are not allowed to stay in it, but because the Lord says, You are now on the Mount of Transfiguration, you have seen Christ ready to be crucified for the life of the world – go now together with Him, go now in His name, go now, and bring people to Him that they may live!
This is our vocation. May God give us faith, and the purity of heart that allows us to see God in every brother and sister of ours! Didn’t one of the Desert Fathers say, ‘He who has seen his brother has seen God’? – and serve one another with love sacrificial, with the exulting joy of giving our lives to one another as Christ gave His life for us. Amen.
To contemplate his transfigured face:
an experience that every disciple must do
Fernando Armellini
Introduction
Immediately after the story of the Transfiguration, the three Synoptic Gospels tell the story of the healing of an epileptic boy. Jesus comes down from the mountain with Peter, James, and John. They see a man break away from the crowd, running to him and ask him for help. My son, my only child—he says—”when the evil spirit seizes him, he suddenly screams. The spirit throws him into a fit, and he foams at the mouth, wearing him out. I begged your disciples to drive it out, but they could not” (Lk 9:38-40).
Jesus had given them “power and authority to drive out all evil spirits and heal diseases” (Lk 9:1). Why were they not able to carry out their mission?
The reason is soon found: because they have not been on the mountain with the Master. Those who have not seen his glorious face cannot effectively fight the forces of evil that afflict humanity.
Tradition places the transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Tabor, a mountain that rises, isolated, in the middle of the fertile plain of Esdraelon. Covered with holm oak, carobs, and pine trees since ancient times, it was called the holy mountain and on top, cults to the pagan gods were offered. Today the place invites meditation and prayer. There it is natural to raise our gaze to the sky and our thought to God. No matter how impressive this experience, it should be noted that the gospel does not speak of Tabor, but of a high mountain. In biblical language, the mountain does not indicate a material place, but the inner experience of a manifestation of God, when the intimacy with the Lord culminates.
Resorting to the language of the mystics we could call it the spiritual condition of the soul that feels dissolved in God, reaching almost to identify with his thoughts and his feelings.
Jesus leaves the plain and leads some disciples to the heights; he moves them away from human reasoning and calculations to introduce them into the inscrutable designs of the Father. He makes them go up to bring them back then, transformed, to the land where they are called to work. The ones who truly love humanity and want to engage in the construction of the kingdom of God in the world must first raise their eyes to heaven, tune their thoughts and projects with those of the Lord. They must above all have “seen” the one who makes life a gift, not in the dark vestment of the loser, but wrapped in dazzling and glorious light.
On the “mountain,” Jesus looks different from how people judged him. There he experiences a metamorphosis: his disfigured face is transfigured, the darkness of failure illuminates, the worn-out suit of the servant turns into a beautiful royal robe, the darkness of death dissolves in the dawn of Easter.
First reading: Daniel 7:9-10,13-14
The chapter from which the reading is taken opens with a dramatic night vision. Daniel sees emerging from the ocean—it was the symbol of the hostile world and chaos in the ancient Middle East—four huge beasts: a lion, a bear, a leopard and a fourth terrible beast, fearful, by the exceptional strength, capable of crushing everything with its iron teeth (Dn 7:2-8).
The language and images are apocalyptic. References and allusions to the history of the peoples who are symbolized are not difficult to decode because it is the same prophet, in the sequel of the story, who clarifies their meaning (Dn 7:17-27). The fierce animals are the four great empires that have taken place in the world and oppressed the people of God.
The lion indicates the bloody reign of Babylon, the damned one, the cruel city that destroyed Jerusalem and its temple; the bear is the people of Mede, greedy and always ready to attack; the leopard with four heads is the symbol of Persian peering in every direction on the prey; the fourth beast, the scariest, depicts the reign of Alexander the Great and his successors, the Diadochi or the six Macedonian generals.
Of these, one is particularly sinister, Antiochus IV, the persecutor of the saints faithful to the law of God. He holds power in the time in which the book of Daniel was redacted. In history, reigns, which were cruel and merciless with the weak, have always succeeded. They were empires that violated the rights of peoples and imposed themselves with violence and abuse of power and behaved like wild beasts.
Will the world always be a victim of arrogant rulers whose god is their force? Will the Lord be indifferent to the oppression of his people? These are the distressing questions that Daniel, in the name of God, wants to answer. Here the great scene taken from the first part of our reading is introduced (vv. 9-12).
Thrones are placed in heaven. An old man—representing the Lord himself—is seated for judgment and pronounces the sentence: the beasts are deprived of power and the last one is killed, torn into pieces and thrown into the fire (Dn 7:9-12). Then what happens? The seer continues to report his revelation: “I continued watching the nocturnal vision. One like a son of man came on the clouds of heaven. He faced the One of Great Age. Dominion, honor and kingship were given him.”
‘Son of Man’ is a Hebrew expression that simply means man. People driven by animal instincts have always managed the world; now no more, one is coming, one with a human heart. Who is this character? He does not come from the sea as the four monsters, but from heaven, that is from God.
The author of the Book of Daniel was not thinking of an individual, he was referring to Israel that, after the great tribulation endured under Antiochus IV, would have received from God an everlasting kingdom that would never set. All the peoples would be subjugated to him without being oppressed because their king would have had a man’s heart.
With this prophecy, written during the persecution of the wicked Antiochus IV (167-164 B.C.), the author wanted to infuse courage and hope in his people. Oppression—he assured—was coming to an end; still a few years and God would hand Israel the domination of the world.
When is this prophecy fulfilled? After two or three years, Israel managed to gain political independence, and many felt that it was finally the reign of the “son of man” promised by Daniel. The facts, unfortunately, belied these expectations. The Maccabees—heroic leaders of the Jewish resistance—conquered the throne, soon forgot the covenant with the Lord and turned into oppressors. They continued to recite the script of the beasts: family feuds, intrigues for power, cruelty, refined court life, religious and moral corruption.
Prophecy—now we know it—is not fulfilled with them, but with the advent of Jesus, the “son of man” who began the reign of the saints of the Most High (Mk 14:62). He has staged new actors to recite the ancient script. He changed the script, has introduced a new policy, opposite to what, in every age, has given rise to realms of wild animals: no more climbing to dominate but going down to receive orders; not the enslavement of the weak, but the service rendered to the weak.
His reign did not start with a victory, but in defeat. The political powers, economic and religious of his time have coalesced to eliminate him and they killed him, certain that they had ended his proposal. Instead, his defeat marked the beginning of the new world.
Having in itself a divine power, this kingdom of the Son of man, despite the angry opposition that he will always have to deal with, is intended to expand itself and to take possession of all hearts. It will be “like the dawn that becomes brighter until the fullness of day” (Pro 4:18).
Second reading: 2 Peter 1:16-19
The early Christians—and Paul himself—were convinced that the Lord would soon manifest himself in his glory, and would introduce his faithful in his kingdom. Towards the end of the first century A.D. however, a delusion began to spread among the disciples for the Lord’s failure to come, while the unbelievers mockingly asked: “What has become of the coming of this promise? Since our fathers in faith died, everything still goes on as it was from the beginning of the world” (2 P 3:4).
To undermine the faith of the disciples, some skeptics spread even the suspicion that the prophecy of the coming of the Lord was nothing but a myth developed by clever people in order to control naive and gullible people.
A disciple of Peter answers to these malevolent insinuations. Writing in the name of the master, he contends, as irrefutable evidence of the truth of the message announced, the personal experience of Peter “on the holy mountain” and the testimony given by the apostles who “saw” the greatness of the Lord Jesus. Wrapped in the glory of a divine epiphany, they have “heard” the voice of Heaven: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
It was not an invented fairy tale. It was a revelation received by those who have lived with Jesus of Nazareth. They, illuminated from above, have contemplated his bright and glorious face.
He continues: we are like sentinels who keep watch at night and stare at the horizon, anxiously waiting for the bright “morning star” (Rev 2:28; 22:16), the bearer of a new day, to appear.
In anticipation of this joyous sunrise, the faces of believers are enlightened and their steps guided by a lamp shining in a world still shrouded in dense darkness. The lamp is the word of God transmitted by the sacred Scriptures (v. 19).
Gospel: Matthew 17:1-9
This passage is sometimes interpreted as a brief preview of the experience of paradise, granted by Jesus to a group of friends, to prepare them to endure the ordeal of his passion and death.
One should always be very cautious when approaching a gospel text because of that which, at first glance, seems to be a chronicle of facts, but at closer look, often reveals itself as a text of theology drawn up according to the canons of biblical language. The account of the Transfiguration of Jesus reported almost identically by Mark and Luke is an example.
Today, Matthew’s version is proposed to us. It opens with a seemingly irrelevant entry: “After six days.” After what? It is not said, but the reference seems to be the most likely debate about the identity of Jesus that occurred in the region of Caesarea Philippi (Mt 16:13-20). One even wonders why Jesus takes with him only three disciples and why does he go up on a mountain.
Let’s start with this last detail. This is a curious fact, especially in Matthew’s Gospel. Jesus, when he does or says something important, goes up on a mountain: The Last Temptation takes place on the Mount (Mt 4:8); the beatitudes are spoken on the Mount (Mt 5:1); he multiplied the loaves on the Mount (Mt 15:29) and, at the end of the Gospel, when the disciples encounter the risen Christ and are sent into the world, they were “on the mountain that had been indicated to them” (Mt 27:16).
Just scroll through the Old Testament to find out the reason for such insistence. The mountain, in the Bible—as indeed, among all peoples of antiquity—was the site of the encounter with God. It was on the mountain that Moses had the manifestation of God and received the revelation that later was passed on to the people. It was also at the top of Horeb that Elijah met the Lord.
There’s more. If we read Exodus 24, we find that of Moses it was said, “after six days” (Ex 24:16), he did not go alone, but took Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu with him (Ex 24:1,9), and was enveloped in a cloud. On the mountain, even his face was transfigured by the splendor of God’s glory (Ex 34:30).
In light of these texts, the aim of the evangelist is clear. He intends to present Jesus as the new Moses, as the one who delivers the new law to the new people, represented by the three disciples. Jesus is the definitive revelation of God.
The shining face and bright robes (v. 2). These are also the reasons that recur often in the Bible. The Lord is “covered with majesty and splendor, wrapped in light as with a garment,” says the Psalmist (Ps 104:1-2). They are images which affirm the presence of God in the person of Jesus.
The meaning of the luminous cloud that envelops all with its shadow is identical (v. 5). The book of Exodus speaks of a luminous cloud that protected the people of Israel in the desert (Ex 13:21), a sign of God’s presence that accompanied his people along the way. When Moses received the law, the mountain was enveloped by a cloud (Ex 24:15-16). He also came down with the shining face (Ex 39:29-35). Cloud and shining face are therefore a reflection of God’s presence.
Using these images, Matthew says that Peter, James, and John, in a particularly significant moment of their lives, have been introduced to the world of God and have enjoyed an enlightenment that made them understand the true identity of the Master and the destination of his journey. He would not be the glorious Messiah they expected, but a Messiah who, after a severe conflict with the religious power, would be opposed, persecuted and killed. They also realized that their fate would be no different from that of the Master.
The voice from heaven (v. 5) is a literary expression frequently used by the rabbis to end a long discussion on a theme and present the thought of God.
The topic discussed in the previous chapter (Mt 16) concerned the identity of Jesus. The Master himself had opened the debate with the question: “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” (Mt 16:13). After exposing the various opinions, the apostles, by the mouth of Peter, had expressed their conviction that he is the long-awaited messiah. The voice from the sky now declares the opinion of God: “Jesus is the beloved,” the faithful servant of whom God is well pleased (Is 42:1).
This “voice” that declared the same words was already heard at baptism. “This is my beloved Son” (Mt 3:17). Now an exhortation is added: “Listen to him.” Listen to him, even when he seems to propose too demanding paths, to indicate the narrow and steep ways, paradoxical and humanly absurd choices.
In the Bible, the word “to listen” does not just mean “to hear” but is often equivalent to the verb “to obey” (Éx 6:12; Mt 18:15-16). The recommendation that the Father gives to Peter, James, and John, and through them, to all the disciples, is “to put into practice” what Jesus teaches. It is the invitation to focus one’s life on the proposal of the beatitude.
Who are Moses and Elijah? The first is the one who gave the Law to his people; the other was considered the first of the prophets. For the Israelites, these two characters represented the Holy Scriptures.
All the holy books of Israel are meant to lead to a dialogue with Jesus; they orient toward him. Without him, the Old Testament is incomprehensible, but also Jesus, without the Old Testament, remains a mystery. On Easter day, to make the meaning of his death and resurrection clear to his disciples, he will resort to the Old Testament: “Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them everything in the Scriptures concerning himself” (Lk 24:27).
The meaning of the image of the three tents is not easy to determine. Surely, they refer to the path of the exodus and here they indicate, perhaps, the desire of Peter to stop and to perpetuate the joy experienced in a moment of spiritual intimacy with the Master. Whoever builds a tent wants to fix his abode in one place and not move, at least for a time. Jesus instead is always on the move. He goes directly to a destination and the disciples must follow him.
Our own spiritual experience can help us to understand. After having spoken at length with God, we are not willing to go back to everyday life: the problems, social conflicts and family disagreements, the dramas we must confront frighten us, yet we know that listening to the Word of God is not everything. One cannot spend one’s life in the church or in the oasis of spiritual retreats. It is necessary to go out to meet and serve the brothers and sisters, to help those who suffer, to be close to anyone in need of love.
After discovering the way to go in prayer, it is necessary to put oneself in following Jesus who goes up to Jerusalem to offer his life.
Let us summarize the meaning of the scene: the whole Old Testament (Moses and Elijah) receives direction from Jesus. Peter does not understand the meaning of what is happening. Although in words he proclaims Jesus as “the Christ” (Mt 16:16), he remains profoundly convinced that he is just a great character, a man at the level of Moses and Elijah, for this he suggests that three equal tents be built.
God intervenes to correct the false interpretation of Peter: Jesus is not just a great legislator or a mere prophet, he is the “beloved Son” of the Father.
The three characters cannot continue to be together any longer. Jesus stands out clearly from the others and is absolutely superior. Israel had listened to the voice of the Lord which had been transmitted by Moses and the prophets. Now this voice—Peter says—comes to people through Christ. It is he and him alone that the disciples should listen to. It is noted that, when the three look up, they see no others but Jesus. Moses, and Elijah are gone, they have already accomplished their mission: they have presented to the world the Messiah, the new prophet, the new lawgiver.
The promise made to the people by Moses before his death is surprisingly realized: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like myself from among the people, from your brothers, to whom you shall listen” (Dt 18:15).
READ: The Transfiguration of Jesus is a theophany, a manifestation of the divine. For Jesus and the three disciples with him on the mountain, the experience is a mystical one.
REFLECT: Religious and mystical experiences occur frequently in life. Such experiences are beyond words. Give some thought how the physical can express the spiritual.
PRAY: Prayer can be a mystical experience. Be open in your prayer to recognize the presence of the divine.
ACT: Look for the spiritual in everything. The Spirit is present in all that exists.
